I VISITED a pharmacy in Kuala Lumpur recently and noticed that many local customers were there to get medication without a doctor’s prescription. I spoke to a few of them and they told me they did not see the need to pay for consulting a doctor when they could just go to a pharmacy to get the medication they required. All they had to do was tell the pharmacist in charge what symptoms they were having and they would get the medication. This is happening not only in one pharmacy but throughout the country as well.
There are specific roles for doctors and pharmacists in healthcare. That is why in first world countries, it is the doctor’s job to prescribe the medication and the pharmacist’s to dispense it. The Malaysia Pharmacy Association is fighting for this now but what they may not realise is that some pharmacists are selling medication over the counter to customers without a prescription.
